The newest trend in medicine seems to be the creation of very cheap blood testing to find out more about the body, illnesses and infections, and the Theranos test for herpes follows this new trend, as the multimillion-dollar startup gets its official approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The Theranos test for herpes was created by the Elizabeth Holmes-founded company of the same name, which is currently valued at $9 billion, and it's been highly controversial due to the secrecy surrounding their management of data, but now that the FDA has approved their herpes test, Theranos will move forward with their finger stick technology.
According to Bloomberg, the company announced that the United States' FDA has recently cleared their Theranos test for herpes (HSV-1) through a statement last Thursday, specifying that they'd also received approval for their analysis system, which the company has kept mostly in secret over the past decade.
According to USA Today, the company behind the Theranos test for herpes was founded in 2003 and worked entirely in secret for the decade that followed, experimenting with a new method: changing blood tests from needing vials of blood to just a few drops of it - and since 2014, they've been working on Walgreens labs in Arizona and Palo Alto.
While the company has strict secrecy norms for its products in development, not submitting them to peer review, Holmes had said from the beginning they would voluntarily submit to FDA's reviewing practices, as they consider the government agency "the ultimate arbiter of safety and efficacy," as the company told Business Insider a few months back.
Currently, the Theranos test for herpes costs $9.07, in what the company claims is an attempt to allow individuals to get tested in an affordable way, without the need for insurance coverage due to the very low pricing.
"In order to realize our vision of early detection, lab tests must meet the highest quality standards - standards that are comprehensively set by FDA," said Holmes through a statement, announcing the approval of the Theranos test for herpes. "We look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with the Agency on further applications."
